Individual Ethics Essay

Individual Ethics Essay

Brian Adams

ETH316

Individual Ethics Essay

The three theories of Virtue Ethics, Utilitarianism and Deontology are different but also related in some ways. Virtue Ethics discusses the theory that everyone should strive for excellence in everything they do. This not only includes subjects like work or sports, but also virtues such as treating other people the way you want to be treated. Just as someone can consciously train to be a better worker for their employer that same person can consciously train to treat other people with repect and dignity. Virtue ethics works with both nonmoral and moral events. This relates to Deontology in the respect that doing a good job for your employer is inherently the right thing to do regardless of your beliefs. However, the consequences of your employer making more of a profit due to your better work ethics is not important. In contrast Utilitarianism deals mostly with the moral side of the question. Installing a traffic light at a busy intersection that has a lot of accidents could be considered, “The greatest good for the greatest number”.

Virtue Ethics has been the biggest influence in my life. My parents always taught us to do our best at everything we did and to treat everyone the way we wanted to be treated and we would go far. They also taught us to love our country and to be selfless, caring about others more than ourselves. Having these kinds of thought instilled in your life can be very rewarding. At 19 years old I found myself being promoted to a manager’s position because of the hard work that I did. Even in the military I had a tendency to be promoted a little faster than some of the other soldiers. There is still a minimum time frame that you have to be in the previous position for but as soon as I met that requirement I was promoted. I was even offered Officer Candidate School which only gets offered to soldiers with very high test scores. I politely turned it down because of my...